Rob’s Comments (group member since Jul 06, 2012)

Rob’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

Yeah, the Riyria books are excellent in audio!

Jen wrote: "I think I'll be happy if either book wins, but I voted Theft for the Roberator! (got any of those high-fives left, Rob?)"

Definitely! *high fives Jen*

Tassie Dave wrote: "Rob wrote: "Martian Chronicles (2-4 in polls)"

You missed 1. There was a Patreon poll for the July 2017 book pick

It placed 4th (of 4): Lost to The Left Hand of Darkness

https://swo..."

Ah. I just went off the goodread polls. That's why you're the historian :-D

Aaron wrote: "This is tough, I now want to read both. In a straight comparison, I would be voting for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, but I think my weakness for supporting the long-suff..."

Yeah, I want to read Fifteen Lives as well. And I already own it, but this is the 4th year I've pushed to get Theft nominated and I just want to see it finally win! :-D

Mark wrote: "If I understand the Roberator correctly, those of us voting for Theft of Swords must heed these words...

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.
Dante Alighieri, Inferno, 1472"

That seems a bit extreme..

I really liked the book, or I wouldn't keep recommending it. Nor would I be willing to waste my time rereading it with the group if it won.

Especially knowing that once I start I'll be tempted to reread the rest. Although my recollection is the first 2 stories are stand-alone enough that I can probably just stop there.

I just think it's a series that improves a lot in terms of both writing and story.

Here is my review of Theft of Swords for anyone interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Trike wrote: "I feel like if Theft of Swords wins, Rob will be running around his house like Jonathan E at the end of Rollerball.

theft of swords
Theft of Swords
Theft Of Swords
THEFT OF SWORDS
THEFT OF SWORDS..."

At this point because I've been pushing for the group to read it for so long, I feel like there will be a huge letdown to some people because of all the hype.

That book is far from my favorite he's written, but some of the latter books were, and that's the best starting point in my opinion.

Like as David and Dara mentioned in the round 3 thread there are some issues there. For me they were small enough that I continued on to the later books which I enjoyed more

But none of that matters because I've already resigned myself to the fact that it's not going to win..

I will say normally I skip rereads (which has been all 3 books for me this year) but if Theft actually wins I plan to reread it since I've read about 8 more Ryria books since then.

Bonus Stats

So with the perennial losers Theft of Swords and The Martian Chronicles both making deep runs this year, I decided to take a look at their history.

I was surprised to discover Martian Chronicles wasn't in the March Madness tournament last year, but it has been in several polls. It wasn't eligible for the first two tournaments as those were just fantasy only.

Theft of Swords has now been in all 4 tournaments, and overall has a winning record but this is the deepest it's made it in the tournament.

Theft of Swords (6-3 in March Madness)
-----------------------------------------------
March Madness 2016: 2-1 Lost to The Fifth Season in the 3rd round which tied for final / became the alt pick
March Madness 2017: 0-1 Lost to The Invisible Library in the 1st round, which won the tournament
March Madness 2018: 1-1 Lost to The Way of Kings in the 2nd round
March Madness 2019: 3-? (What will its fate be this year?)


Martian Chronicles (2-4 in polls)
---------------------------------------
March Madness 2019: 2-1 Lost to The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August in the 3rd round
Placed 2nd in a December 2018 poll: Lost to Ninefox Gambit
Placed 4th in a February 2014 poll Lost to Altered Carbon
Placed 2nd in a June 2012 poll Lost to Leviathan Wakes

Round 3 complete!

Checkout my breakdown of the results

The Finals are a go! Voting ends Tuesday March 26th at 11:59PM EST

Checkout the final matchup and go vote!

Results from Round 3:

We saw a big spike in participation in round 3 (up about 75 votes), but are still down from overall participation last year.

This seems to be a trend: average voting/poll in round 2 is down from round 1, but round 3 averages higher than round 1. Then another dip in the finales. Apparently people really like the odd rounds!

View the full bracket here

Tournament Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 4,218
Average Votes Cast: 301
Book With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (220 Votes) (Round 3)
Match-up With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August vs. The Martian Chronicles (361 Votes) (Round 3)
Largest Win: Theft of Swords (117 Votes) (Round 1)
Smallest Win: Nexus (3 Votes) (Round 1)
Average Win: 39 votes

Round 3 Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 717
Average Votes Cast: 358.5
Book With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (220 Votes)
Match-up With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August vs. The Martian Chronicles (361 Votes)
Largest Win: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (79 Votes)
Smallest Win: Theft of Swords (6 Votes)
Average Win: 42.5 votes

Round 2 Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 1,132
Average Votes Cast: 283
Book With Most Votes: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (163 Votes)
Match-up With Most Votes: The Martian Chronicles vs. After Atlas (293 Votes)
Largest Win: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (57 Votes)
Smallest Win: Theft of Swords (13 Votes)
Average Win: 32.5

Round 1 Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 2,369
Average Votes Cast: 296
Book With Most Votes: Theft of Swords (208 Votes)
Match-up With Most Votes: TIE! (305 Votes)
The Poppy War vs. Black Leopard, Red Wolf
AND
The Martian Chronicles vs. Infomocracy
Largest Win: Theft of Swords (117 Votes)
Smallest Win: Nexus (3 Votes)
Average Win: 42 votes

Sword Bracket
---------------------------------

(1) Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan (181 Votes - 50.8%)
vs.
(4) Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (175 Votes - 49.2%)

Winner: Theft of Swords
Total Votes: 356
Margin of Victory: 6

---------------------------------



Laser Bracket
---------------------------------

(2) The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (220 Votes - 60.9%)
vs.
(3) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (141 Votes - 39.1%)

Winner: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Total Votes: 361
Margin of Victory: 79

---------------------------------

Yeah part of me debated trying to push The Crown Tower instead because it's a better written book, but I'm a proponent of publication order and I feel like reading Crown Tower first spoils some details of the original series (it's the first book of the prequel series).

I also think Riyria gets better with each entry, most of which can be read stand alone until you get to Wintertide / the first half of Heir of Novron where you'll want to jump right into Percepliquis.

It's been "chalk" all the way, but I'm expecting The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August to run away wit h it.

Maybe that's just the pessimist in me.

Go Theft of Swords!

Checkout the full Bracket


Voting for the finals will be March 20th 12:01AM EST - March 26th 11:59PM EST

See below for the round breakdown with links to each poll

Finals

(1) Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

vs.

(2) The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Vote Here

Tassie Dave wrote: "We need to read Ray Bradbury at some time.

My vote would be for Something Wicked This Way Comes or The Martian Chronicles

Theft of Swords is going to win March Madness "

I've read both, and I didn't care for Something Wicked personally. So I hope we finally read The Martian Chronicles one of these days.

I wish I was as optimistic as you are the Theft of Swords will win. I'm expecting it to get blown out in the final personally..

I will say this is by far their weakest series so far, but I was considering rolling off the show earlier in the season and now I'm interested in seeing what they do in season 2.

Kaz is still kind of annoying, but he's gotten better as the season has gone on.

Are they just Jelly Bellies?

Tamahome wrote: "I can comment on things that don't take a lot of time to consume, lol."

👍

Man. All these posts recently. Are you going to be more regular appearance in the discussion threads Tama? I haven't seen you around in awhile. It's good to see you!

I joined in July 2012, and started reading along in August. I've read every main pick since then, but I've skipped most of the alt picks.

I never intentionally went back to read the ones I've missed, but there are a lot of great books there so I hit a bunch of them anyways.

Like Dave, part of the reason I'm in/still active in the club is to get exposed to books I wouldn't otherwise read. So I read all the picks. If they don't sound appealing to me, I try to get them from the library.

Looking at the numbers this puts me at: 105/127 or 83%.

If we limit that to main picks, I'm at 100/118 or 85%.

There are another 7-8 I may end up reading eventually, a few of which I own, but none are high on my backlog list.

Welcome Chris

So Riyria pronounced Rye-ear-uh. The book does explain why they are called that, but it could be considered a spoiler, albeit a minor one so I'll put it in spoiler tags.

(view spoiler)[Riyria means two in Elvish (hide spoiler)]